Has anyone lost confidence in Stearns

No I am not looking to replace our GM but I would be lying if I didn’t say that I have lost a lot of confidence in him. Since last season ended he has done what I consider to be a very poor job.

To me it all started going downhill when he let Derek Johnson and to a lesser extent Lee Tunnel go. The job that Johnson did with a less than stellar staff was nothing short of incredible and letting him go over money or just not valuing him enough was a decision that hurt way more than most will admit.

The new hitting coach Haines has also looked like another disastrous hire as the offense once again can’t seem to ever get a hit with RISP. If it were up to me I would fire Hook and Haines and if we’re being honest would hire Derek Johnson to replace Counsell.

Now on to the personnel moves. Moustakas worked out as well as Grandal at least offensively (I think his defense and handling the staff has negated all of his offense). Going with Burnes and Peralta didn’t bother me since we need to develop young starters if we are going to win consistently but leaving them in the hands of Hook was a huge mistake.

Another issue has been this ridiculous over reliance on left handed bats. It has been obvious for quite a while that we don’t have a balanced lineup when facing lefties and almost every game we are using lefty pinch hitters against lefty relievers when we need a big hit. How can Stearns not see that we need more righty bats.

Lastly and this is a big one. Why is our farm system so barren. The GM has been here long enough to be judged on the scouting and development and so far he doesn’t look to be much better in that department than the previous staff which was awful. In summation Stearns has done a very poor job this season and we all better hope that this is just a roadblock and not a trend.

I think next year is really important for him. He built an absolute atrocity of a pitching staff. One can give him a free pass this yearif they want for giving young guys a chance (I don’t think that is a valid excuse...too each their own). I have said many times there is zero reason all those young guys had to start from Day 1 to get a big chance this year...none. Stearns felt the need to and it was laughably bad. But next year? All on him, no excuses building another horrible pitching staff.

Agree with the ridiculous imbalance of lefty hitters. I think this is now no-brainer territory.

Disagree that we have a barren farm. Devoid of position prospects yes. But remember 2 good ones called up this year to the big league club should be fixtures for years. Pitching in our farm,imo, is stacked. And outside of Ray, his drafts have been great, and the investment on the international side will take a little more time to bare fruit.

I think next year is really important for him. He built an absolute atrocity of a pitching staff. One can give him a free pass this yearif they want for giving young guys a chance (I don’t think that is a valid excuse...too each their own). I have said many times there is zero reason all those young guys had to start from Day 1 to get a big chance this year...none. Stearns felt the need to and it was laughably bad. But next year? All on him, no excuses building another horrible pitching staff.

Agree. He did the rebuild quickly and quite well, A+ there. Now, it's the next step of making a consistent winner/contender for several years (Cardinals type style). We'll see if he can do that as it is obviously very difficult. Hopefully he learned a lot on the pitching staff this year and does better with it next year. I'd also add that we should remember that in spite of the frustration and disappointment in this year technically they are in it near the end and likely going to be above .500. So I guess technically you could say it's now been 3 years of contending in a row. And we have to remember we're still MKE so can't just dump money and make the playoffs every year like so many other teams.

For the LHP thing. Yes, clearly an issue now. But ripping Stearns on it from a team building perspective I think is a stretch if you think deeper than recency bias. At team building stage he had Jesus and Cain as returning all stars as RH hitters. RH masher Hiura on the rise to spell the Moose/Shaw combo and Braun crushes LHP. SH Catcher and good backup C vs lefties. Cain/Jesus had awful years and Braun while having a good year did not have his normal crazy LHP stats. Going into next year it should be addressed but I think you're stretching it to blame him for how the team was built this year on it, those three things happening couldn't be planned.

Last edited by tmwiese55 on September 06, 2019, 10:45 AM, edited 1 time in total.

We don't know that Stearns let Johnson go. Reports at the time were we made a competitive offer. Maybe DJ just wanted to be closer to home/family & no amount of money would have kept him in Milwaukee.

Studies have shown that performance with RISP is mostly random in any given year. I don't believe our front office would fire Haines for something they likely view as largely out of his control.

Our farm system is so barren because we traded multiple highly ranked prospects who've yet to amount to anything for the best player in the NL the last two seasons. We've also recently graduated already MLB contributors (Hiura, Woodruff, Houser) & hopeful future MLB contributors (Grisham, Burnes, Peralta).

Since Stearns got here we have won the 9th most games in MLB. His first three seasons we massively overachieved expectations. As much as many might paint this season as some huge disappointment, we are still within the range of most likely outcomes based on preseason projections, which considering all the things that went wrong this year means the organization as a whole has actually fared pretty well in my estimation...

Big offseason for him but should have some player space to make those moves especially with the pitching.I agree maybe get a bat or two into the lineup.also look very close at maybe upgrade both the hitting and pitching coaches

Agree with the ridiculous imbalance of lefty hitters. I think this is now no-brainer territory.

Disagree that we have a barren farm. Devoid of position prospects yes. But remember 2 good ones called up this year to the big league club should be fixtures for years. Pitching in our farm,imo, is stacked. And outside of Ray, his drafts have been great, and the investment on the international side will take a little more time to bare fruit.

I don't see a "ridiculous imbalance of lefty hitters". If the lineup is healthy, Braun-Cain-Hiura-Grandal (SW)-Arcia are all RH. Yellich hits everybody so that leaves only Thames and Moose as the imbalance. With Grandal going to 1B and Pina catching against lefties, that leaves only 3B an area of concern. Granted their best lineup is with Thames and Moose and I agree there is an imbalance when injuries to Cain and Braun happen.

Agree with the ridiculous imbalance of lefty hitters. I think this is now no-brainer territory.

Disagree that we have a barren farm. Devoid of position prospects yes. But remember 2 good ones called up this year to the big league club should be fixtures for years. Pitching in our farm,imo, is stacked. And outside of Ray, his drafts have been great, and the investment on the international side will take a little more time to bare fruit.

I don't see a "ridiculous imbalance of lefty hitters". If the lineup is healthy, Braun-Cain-Hiura-Grandal (SW)-Arcia are all RH. Yellich hits everybody so that leaves only Thames and Moose as the imbalance. With Grandal going to 1B and Pina catching against lefties, that leaves only 3B an area of concern. Granted their best lineup is with Thames and Moose and I agree there is an imbalance when injuries to Cain and Braun happen.

Grandal, Arcia, and Pina are all better against RHP...significantly better in fact. I know Pina has hit lefties well this year, but the last 2 years he was better vs RHP.

A normal lineup heading into the season was Cain, Yelich, Braun, Shaw, Grandal, Moose, Aguilar/Thames, Arcia...in some order. That's 3/4 RHB, 3/4 LHB, and a switch...bench of Pina, Gamel, Perez. On paper, that's as balanced as it gets. But when you factor in Arcia/Grandal being better against RHP, it ends with our lineup generally being a bit more effective against RHP.

Overall, I don't think it's fair to criticize lineup balance at all. This lineup is far more balanced than our 2008-2011 lineups which were very very RH heavy.

Where i blame Stearns is all of this was known at the deadline and nothing was done to improve. Giving this team little hope vs The Cubbies and teams with lefty starters. Depressing. Castellanos would have added wins alone.

Well Huira came up at that time improve it. Aguilar was jettisoned to improve and play Grandal instead. Where would you have played Castellanos? Yelich and Braun have been our best hitters this year. They banked on CAin improvement 2nd half, which he generally did but still not great. So, in your plan our daily OF would be Braun in LF, Yeli CF, Castellanos in RF. Potentially one of the worst OF Ds in the league

Also, Cubs gave up their 2017 #1 pick and I think the other guy was a recent #2 pick.

Well Huira came up at that time improve it. Aguilar was jettisoned to improve and play Grandal instead. Where would you have played Castellanos? Yelich and Braun have been our best hitters this year. They banked on CAin improvement 2nd half, which he generally did but still not great. So, in your plan our daily OF would be Braun in LF, Yeli CF, Castellanos in RF. Potentially one of the worst OF Ds in the league

Also, Cubs gave up their 2017 #1 pick and I think the other guy was a recent #2 pick.

Hiura Braun Castellanos Pina Freitas would have won some games vs LHP. Even with worse defense. Stearns is creative. If there’s a will there’s a way. Imo, the Will wasn’t there.

It seems you don't grasp there has to be a spot to play these guys. There is not unlimited rosters and these guys can't play SS, 3B, CF (plus we're paying a CF 17 mil and is gold glove on D). You don't have the roster spots and you don't have DHs for multiple positions. You're now claiming we needed Castellanos who plays the same spot as our two best hitters this year combined with needing a 3rd C to help at 1B/C when our current 1B/C combo vs lefties did great vs lefties and our normal 1B has mid to upper 8s OPS. None of this makes any sense.

Last edited by tmwiese55 on September 06, 2019, 1:59 PM, edited 2 times in total.

It seems you don't grasp there has to be a spot to play these guys. There is not unlimited rosters and these guys can't play SS, 3B, CF. You don't have the roster spots and you don't DHs for multiple positions. You're now claiming we needed Castellanos who plays the same spot as our two best hitters this year combined with needing a 3rd C to help at 1B/C when our current 1B/C combo vs lefties did great vs lefties. None of this makes any sense.

I’d have kept Perez down. Gamel down. Called up Freitas. Traded for Castellanos.

Outfield: Grisham Cain Yelich Castellanos Braun

Infield: Moose Arcia Hiura Thames Grandal Pina Freitas

Arcia plays every game. Don’t need Perez.

Vs LHP it’s Castellanos in LF Cain in CF Yelich in RF

Moose at 3B Arcia SS Hiura 2B Freitas 1B Pina C

Freitas hit .530 vs LHP so he’s my 1B over Grandal who’s best side is LH. He can rest up, because he’s played a lot the first 4 months. So yeah, I have a grasp of roster construction, and this lineup kills LHP.

The only acceptable moves Stearns would have made, would have been to trade Freitas and Lyles to the Angels for Mike Trout, trade LoCain for Castellanos, signed Bryce Harper, and traded for Jack Flaherty. I'm honestly not sure why he wasn't able to pull off all of these moves.

It seems you don't grasp there has to be a spot to play these guys. There is not unlimited rosters and these guys can't play SS, 3B, CF. You don't have the roster spots and you don't DHs for multiple positions. You're now claiming we needed Castellanos who plays the same spot as our two best hitters this year combined with needing a 3rd C to help at 1B/C when our current 1B/C combo vs lefties did great vs lefties. None of this makes any sense.

I’d have kept Perez down. Gamel down. Called up Freitas. Traded for Castellanos.

Outfield: Grisham Cain Yelich Castellanos Braun

Infield: Moose Arcia Hiura Thames Grandal Pina Freitas

Arcia plays every game. Don’t need Perez.

Vs LHP it’s Castellanos in LF Cain in CF Yelich in RF

Moose at 3B Arcia SS Hiura 2B Freitas 1B Pina C

Freitas hit .530 vs LHP so he’s my 1B over Grandal who’s best side is LH. He can rest up, because he’s played a lot the first 4 months. So yeah, I have a grasp of roster construction, and this lineup kills LHP.

And I would argue we’d be right there with the Cubbies.

Sorry no you don't. That roster construction is absolutely terrible for an NL team. You have no one that can functionally play any IF other than the 3 starters and a bunch of corner OF/1b/C. Not sure if you noticed, but two of our IFs got hurt, you have to plan on that. You have multiple guys overlapping at the same positions even though only a fixed amount can play each day. It's brutal.

Moreover, you're giving up all that flex to "improve" from Grandal vs LHP to Freitas, even though Grandal has a mid to upper 8s OPS vs Lefties. And giving up at least two good prospects to improve from Cain to Castellanos for 2 months, which might not actually even help the team because it would create the worst defensive OF in baseball. Plus, management correctly viewed this year's deadline as not a 'lets go for it' type of year so didn't wanna blow more prospects. And remember, it's not like Castellanos has ever hit like this before so it's a massive lucky fluke. Again, this makes no sense.

Who is online

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum